


Beauty and the Imp

by Polerfan1986



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Beauty and the Beast 1991, Belle (Disney 1991), Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Funny, La Belle et la Bete 2014, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Character Deaths, Rumbelle Retelling, Tale as Old as Time, snarkiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 16:28:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6863035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polerfan1986/pseuds/Polerfan1986
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My first Multi-chapter fan fiction.  A retelling of the story of Belle and Rumplestiltskin, which has elements from Once Upon a Time and the 1991 movie as well as from La Belle et La Bete (2014) and Belle's cameo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame is also used in this fic.  Belle in this story will be a stronger character more like 1991 Belle than OUAT Belle.  We will see a lot more of Belle's time in the Dark Castle, something we've only had a few snippets of on the show.  Obviously some details of the story from the show will be changed, these alterations will become clear as the story progresses.  I decided to do this because (A) as I've mentioned we've seen very little of Belle's time with Rumple in the Dark Castle on the show and (B) I'm not happy with how Rumbelle have been written on OUAT for the past 2.5 to 3 seasons.  Also Belle and Rumple will have encounters with a lot more characters in this fic than they have had in the series.  Tags will change as the story continues.  This story begins just before a Beauty makes a deal with a Beast.  Rumbelle will not have the same fate in this story as they have had in the show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a shy spinner named Rumplestiltskin lived in a small run down cottage. Although he had very little in the way of wealth and material goods, the spinner did not care, for his most precious possession was his only child, his son named Baelfire or Bae for short and as long as the spinner had his son he considered himself the wealthiest and most fortunate man in the land.

Rumple had come home from the Ogre Wars a cripple many years before and his wife Milah who hadn’t expected him to come back at all was full of spite and rage and accused him of being a coward for not dying on the battlefield, she left him without so much as a look back or a word to either him or Bae. As a result of his injury Rumple returned to his spinning wheel and it was the only thing that kept the scraps of food on the table for him and his son and the rags on their backs. But then, one day, cruel soldiers came to the spinner’s village demanding all able bodied adults and children of age be sent to fight in the ongoing war against the ferocious ogres, the spinner recognized it for the death sentence it was and began plotting to get his son to safety before he came of age to be sent away to the battlefield. 

In the end they were left with only one option, to run, leave everything they had ever known behind and venture into the unknown. So Rumplestiltskin woke his son in the dead of night and the two ventured out along a path that lead into the forest. After being harassed and threatened by passing soldiers who said they would return for Bae in two days time, Rumple and Bae encountered an old beggar who told them a story about an immensely powerful being known as the Dark One. 

Rumplestiltskin had no idea then but the old beggar was more than what he seemed, and on hearing the tale he told the wheels had been set in motion for Rumple’s own story. A story that would span centuries, in which the man who was once the poor town spinner and whom no one ever glanced twice at except to spit on would find himself being begged by Kings and Queens for deals to grant them power, riches and magic. The man whom some called coward and mocked for his injured leg would do battle against wicked witches, pirates and an evil queen.

He who thought himself difficult to love and hardened his heart to save himself from further hurt would fall in love with a beautiful princess and earn her love in return and that he would lose his son only to be reunited with him and his family after years of searching and bringing down worlds to find him. Such was the destiny of Rumplestiltskin the humble spinner who would become the most powerful sorcerer in all the realms. But all magic comes with a price and along with Rumplestiltskin’s newfound power came a curse of darkness binding him to a dagger which could be used by anyone to control him. So he concealed the dagger, hid it away inside the vault of the castle which became his home and where no one would ever find it.

Rumplestiltskin did indeed lose his son and would travel down many paths in hopes of being reunited with Baelfire over the years and in that time he learned that all curses even his own could be broken by true love’s kiss and that the longer he remained enslaved to the darkness the more monstrous he would become. His need to know that his child was still alive drove him to create an enchanted rose through blood magic which would tell him how his son fared until he could reach him. If any petals began to fall from the rose Rumplestiltskin would know his son was either ill or injured but as long as the rose was in full bloom he knew his son was alive and well wherever he was. He also created a magic mirror to use as a window to other realms beyond his own which could show him anything on command in any magical realm however it never showed his son and so Rumple concluded that Baelfire must be in a land without magic.

Rumple kept the rose and the mirror close to him in The Dark Castle at all times and guarded his home fiercely against any who would be foolish enough to try and enter. As the centuries passed in his realm he fell into despair at the thought of never finding Bae again and hardened his heart against all love, swore off it, until he was once again reunited with his child. Besides he was a creature of darkness now, a monster with a reputation for being merciless and heartless that preceded him in all realms and left people everywhere too terrified to approach the land and castle over which he had made himself Lord and afraid to even speak his name lest its mere utterance should cause him to appear before them. Who he thought to himself, could ever learn to love such a beast…..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of my prologue here comes from my other story Say What Now Dearie but I added a little to it for this story. I didn't want to make it overly long as it is only a prologue and we will learn more about both Rumple and Belle's respective pasts as this story progresses.


	2. Little Towns and Quiet Villages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we are in the village and we meet Belle, Maurice and Gaston and learn a little about their backgrounds and someone from another Disney movie makes a brief cameo appearance as well. We are definitely in Beauty and the Beast 1991 territory in this chapter being in the village however there are twists which bring it into OUAT territory as well and there is an element from La Belle et la Bete in this chapter as well. Enjoy Xx

In the magical realm of Mist Haven there was a Dukedom known as Avonlea, Avonlea had been a thriving land until it became caught up in the accursed Ogre Wars and was destroyed with many lives lost. Unable to muster enough forces to drive back the ogres and grieving the loss of his wife who had been slain by the monsters, Maurice the then Lord of Avonlea along with his daughter Belle and his surviving people had fled the land. They travelled many miles away until they reached a quiet village, it was a little town of no consequence to anyone except those who lived there and somewhere they would be safe. They settled and lived there peacefully for several years.

After a time however, Belle began to find village life too stifling, mundane and confined, every day was very much the same as the one that came before it and she longed for adventures in far off places like those she read about in her beloved books. Before she died, Belle’s mother Colette had kept an impressive library and gardens in Avonlea and she had instilled in her daughter a love of the written word and of plants and flowers particularly roses.

Belle had become an avid bookworm over the years and when she wasn’t helping her father at home, doing any and all chores that were required and even planting and cultivating a little vegetable patch in order to help them save money by growing their own food, she could usually be found curled up somewhere with her nose stuck in a book. Maurice had taken to trying his hand at inventing things in the hopes that he might make a fast fortune for himself and Belle but he had yet to find success in his endeavours. 

Today Belle left her papa in the cellar of their cottage to go into town and return a book. It was very early in the morning and the village was just starting to spring to life around her as she ambled down the street lost in daydreams of adventure. She heard the baker bellowing for his assistant to hurry up with the baguettes and the wonderful smell of hot, freshly baked bread began to waft out on to the street.

The Barber’s first customer of the day was in an outrage because he’d just had half of his moustache snipped off, the Butcher was so busy drooling over a buxom young woman passing his shop that he failed to notice his wife come up behind him with a rolling pin which she promptly clocked him over the head with and a customer across the street was complaining about the price of half a dozen eggs being too expensive. “Same little, old town, different day” Belle thought to herself with a sigh as she passed them all. 

She returned her book only to find no new ones available, this didn’t surprise her in the slightest, the town bookstore never could keep up with her appetite for books and she settled for borrowing her favourite which she’d already read at least twice. The owner of the store however insisted on her keeping it this time as she loved it so much, well that and the fact that Belle being the sole reader in town meant she was keeping him in business, so he felt the least he could do was let her have the book for her own.

Other people in town had always seen her as a bit of a funny girl really for being such a bookworm. Oh a beauty to be sure with her brunette ringlets in a loose, low ponytail, creamy skin and vivid blue eyes and petite but curvy figure but a funny one all the same because she was so well read which was not a highly sought after quality in a woman and apparently she always had a dreamy far off look on her face.

Then there was Gaston, Belle had always detested Gaston she thought him boorish and brainless and to be honest a prize idiot. He had been one of the nobles who had left Avonlea with them. He had always been an excellent hunter though and this was how he chose to make his living in the village. Before the sacking of Avonlea, Maurice had made plans for Belle to marry Gaston, one of many reasons that Belle was happy to no longer be a lady with a title, as neither she, her father nor Gaston were nobility any longer she was free to refuse Gaston as often as she wished which pleased her greatly. The only thing that would please her even more would be if he stopped asking her altogether but alas he never was the sharpest tool in the box. The only thing being a noble had ever represented to Belle was the threat of being married off to a lout she didn’t care three straws for and being a brood mare for him in the name of politics, so she was very much relieved that it was no longer something she had to fret over. 

Gaston was tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed, strong and muscled from years of hunting and had every girl in town tripping over themselves to win his affections. Every girl that is except the one he wanted which just so happened to be Belle who avoided him like he was the plague. Gaston had the reputation of being the vainest man in the kingdom when he was a noble and he hadn’t changed a bit since, the only person Gaston was in love with was himself. He also had the unforgivable habit of criticising Belle’s reading which she loathed him for.

He had cornered her that day after she left the book shop and was headed back to the cottage and had whipped her book out of her basket before she could stop him. “Honestly Belle how can you read this? There’s no pictures” he’d said flicking through the pages briefly.

“Some people like to use their imaginations Gaston” she’d answered to which he’d replied that it was time she got her head out of those books and paid attention to more important things, himself being chief among them of course and flung her book unceremoniously into the mud. He continued of course saying how it wasn't right for women to read because it gave them ideas and got them thinking. Belle managed to politely extricate herself from his grasp and retrieve her fallen book after that. She promptly revised her opinion, Gaston wasn’t just vain he was rude, conceited and positively primeval. Half of the town may have been in love with him and thought him handsome but to Belle he was the most thoroughly unattractive and unappealing man that she had ever had the misfortune to meet. 

Belle heard an explosion come from her house and saw billowing clouds of smoke coming from the cellar so she hurried back home to her papa. “Papa” she called as she entered the cellar, “are you alright” she called out to him.

“I’m fine Belle" came her father's voice through the smoke "I thought I was never going to get this contraption to work, it took a few kicks but I got it.” Belle smiled in amazement, Maurice’s latest invention was a device for cutting fire wood and much to both his and Belle’s pleasant surprise it actually worked. Her father immediately announced that he was off to the fair and bade her to hitch up their horse Philippe to the cart while he packed up his invention “this will be the start of a new life for us” he said to her.

Maurice would occasionally travel outside the village to the nearest large city which was a few days journey from the town to attend fairs were he would try to research other inventions and generate ideas and interest in his own. Sometimes Belle would make the journey with him when she needed new books and the store in town had none and also because it allowed her to witness the fabulous festivals that took place in the city and she would always bring a basket with her baring some coins and a loaf of bread for the gypsy girl and her goat who always performed a double act in the festival and whom she would sometimes see begging on the corner of the side street where the city bookstore was situated, just past the great cathedral in the square. Belle loved these excursions because they gave her the opportunity to see something outside of her poor provincial town. 

This time however Maurice told Belle she was to stay at home and he would be back in a few days. "Would you like me to bring you anything back Belle" he asked her.

“Only yourself and Philippe both safe and sound” she answered “and if you happen to see any roses like the ones Mama used to have in the gardens at Avonlea would you please bring even just one back for me, for you know they don’t grow here and I do miss seeing them very much.”

“Very well my girl, a rose it shall be, take care while I’m gone” her papa replied.

"Goodbye papa and good luck" she called after him. Unbeknownst to Belle however Maurice had an ulterior motive in setting out for the fair this time. He had meant what he’d said to Belle, one way or the other this little trip of his was going to change their lives, whether that change would be for the better, remained to be seen. 

Unlike Belle, Maurice was deeply unsatisfied with village life and very much wanted his land and titles back again. He had heard tell on his previous travels to and from the city about the Dark One who was said to reside in a castle deep in the vast forest near the mountains at least a day’s journey from the village. The Dark One was said to be a hideous beast who was hundreds of years old and terribly powerful and rumour had it that there was an object, a dagger somewhere in his castle that was capable of controlling him. Maurice’s aim was to get to the castle, find the dagger and make the Dark One restore his lands and titles to him. He knew it was foolhardy but by the same token Maurice was a very desperate man and desperate times called for desperate measures.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to tell you, I haven't even watched the finale of season 5 because I read the recaps and reviews for it and just reading that Rumbelle once again got the short end of the stick put me right off it. To be honest I have no interest in season 6 at the moment either unless they fix Rumbelle.


	3. Into the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are going to be some snippets from OUAT deleted Rumbelle scenes in this story, the first ones appear in this chapter, see if you can spot them. Incidentally just a little disclaimer I do not own Beauty and the Beast, Once Upon a Time or any of the other stories or characters referenced in this story. If I did Rumbelle would have been properly sorted out a long time ago and would be receiving the treatment they deserve, instead of the mess the writers have made of them.

Maurice and Philippe travelled over hills and through vales and into the mountainside until late in the evening when they found themselves entering the forest just before sundown. There were many stories told about this forest, how it was said to be enchanted, cursed some said of it and teaming with bats and vicious wolves, and there were stories of the beast, some stories said he was a monster with huge fangs and razor sharp killing claws who made off with people’s children in the night.

Other stories said he was a sorcerer who had a penchant for making deals. When he had asked for directions in a tavern while on his travels Maurice had been told “If you must insist on going through the forest then so be it but when you come to the fork in the road keep to the path on the left, the road to the right leads to the castle stay well clear of it. The few who have ventured up that road have never returned, that part of the forest is cursed and not even the bravest of men will venture there.”

With those warnings still ringing in his ears Maurice and Philippe continued until they were deep into the forest and they came upon the fork in the road at which point Philippe became increasingly nervous and Maurice had to struggle to get him to continue following the road to the right. Both he and Philippe halted at the sound of howling coming through the trees, suddenly there were many pairs of eyes watching them through the trees and the sounds of growling.

Philippe tried to back away but backed himself up against a tree instead and panicked when some bats erupted from the trunk, he bolted dragging the cart and Maurice behind him right to the edge of a massive, steep cliff. Maurice tried to steady him and successfully manoeuvred away from the edge only to have the horse bolt again at the sounds of more howling and this time knocking Maurice off the cart. He landed on his hands and knees on the ground and watched horror struck as the poor frightened Philippe fled abandoning him in the process.

Suddenly wolves appeared from the treeline on the hill directly in front of him and began charging towards Maurice so he started running as fast as his legs could carry his heavy frame, the wolves were hard on his heels and he was not thinking or caring about where he was headed anymore. He tripped over the gnarled protruding roots of a large tree and landed face down on the ground just as a clap of thunder and a flash of lightening tore through the sky.

Glancing ahead he saw two huge black iron gates, he ran to them and started banging on them and pleading for help. “Help, someone help me, please, help” and almost as if someone had heard his call one of the gates swung open, he fell through it with relief and kicked it closed after him, just before the wolves reached him. A wolf tried to pull his leg through the gate but he managed to pull his leg free from its jaws. He did not pick up his hat from where it fell on the ground.

It was only then that he turned around and realised where he was, he had actually made it, he was standing in front of the most enormous castle he had ever seen, this had to be the place. The Dark Castle it couldn’t possibly be anything else judging by its appearance and now he grew nervous, he remembered the stories of the beast, the powerful sorcerer said to reside here. It surely wasn’t called the dark castle for nothing and he was currently stranded without a way to get home and a pack of wolves waiting to devour him if he stepped back outside the gates. Another crack of thunder sounded, seconds later a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and the heavens opened, drenching Maurice. He couldn’t go back so that left only one option tentatively he approached the doors of the castle and knocked and was startled when one of the doors simply opened for him granting him admittance.

For the second time that day Maurice found himself in awe, this time of the massive entrance hall he found himself standing in and the huge sprawling staircase at its centre. The hall was very dark, lit only by a single candelabra sitting on a small table. “Hello, Hello” he called out, “is someone there?” Receiving no answer save his own echo but with the distinct aroma of cooked food beginning to assault his senses he proceeded somewhat gingerly further in to the castle.

He was unaware of the pair of eyes fixed on him from the shadows above and watching his every move. Maurice’s stomach began to rumble as he followed the smell through a set of double doors to a great hall where a massive dining table was laid out with two larger lit candelabras and all sorts of wonderful food and set for one. There was a platter of cooked meats, fruits, vegetables and bread.

Maurice was soaked to the bone and started sneezing so after partaking of a share of the food and when he felt his belly was full, he sat in a cosy armchair and warmed himself by the fire blazing in the great hearth. He took a moment to absorb his surroundings, there seemed to be a lot of very strange items most of which he couldn’t identify scattered about the room on individual stands as if they were trophies on display and strangest of all there seemed to be a spinning wheel on a slightly raised platform in one corner of the room.

He sat in a warm haze for several minutes before feeling a draught at his legs and feet. Rising from the armchair he had been settled in he followed the cool gentle breeze to the far end of the room and into what looked like a kitchen. There he noticed a door open, it was a back door leading out of the castle and he moved to close it but was stopped by the sight of the garden and the rose bushes it held. Remembering his promise of a rose for Belle he ventured outside and grasping a beautiful red rose he plucked it from the bush.

He returned to the door and entered the castle kitchen again, taking care to close the door properly behind him, when Maurice turned around to leave the kitchen he heard a strange, lilted voice which addressed him seemingly from thin air. “Well, well and what do we have here, a stranger in my home.”

Maurice froze in fear, looking around the room but seeing no one there, “who are you?” he asked the voice.

“why I’m your host of course” the voice replied.

Maurice began to back out of the room “You can run dearie" the voice mocked "but you won’t be able to hide.” Maurice moved to make a run for it through the great hall and foyer to the main doors, ready to leave the castle and abandon the cause that had brought him there but he had to stop short and jumped back shouting out in fear for he found when he reached the foyer that there was a very odd looking impish man-like creature, leaning against the table with his arms folded and staring right back at him.

The creature’s physical appearance reminded Maurice very much of a crocodile or a lizard. He seemed to have scaly skin of a greenish-gold hue and unsettling large amber reptilian eyes and messy waved hair and he was clad from head to toe in what appeared to be leather and dragonhide. “You’re the dark one, the beast?” he asked suprised. The creature inclined his head “I am indeed dearie, why what’s the matter, were you expecting something furrier with claws and fangs perhaps?” 

Maurice didn’t know quite how to answer that and he began to get the feeling that maybe he was in over his head and perhaps it would be best if he tried to talk his way out of this and flee home. “Please I didn’t mean any harm, I got lost and needed a place to stay for the night” he began but the dark one cut him off.

“don’t try to insult me dearie, I know what you came here for, I can smell desperation a mile away and you reek of it. Did you think I wouldn’t be able to sense a desperate soul coming my way, much less one who had intentions to try and control me” the imp continued “or that the gates and doors of my castle would just open freely to you for no reason” and here the dark one began to get angry. “I granted you admittance to my domain, I allowed you food from my table and warmth from my hearth and you repay me by pilfering from my garden and lying to my face, and my patience is wearing thin, so I suggest you try explaining again why you’re here. You must be in dire need to have come all this way to find me.”

“I was once a duke” Maurice began “with lands and a castle of my own, until the ogres overran my lands and my people and I were forced to flee for our lives, my land was called Avonlea.”

“Ah yes ogres” the dark one said with a strange trill in his voice, "they’re fun in adventure stories but in real life they pull your legs off.”

Maurice frowned “in real life, you’ve faced them before then, in battle?” he asked.

“Oh, I might have been in the ogres war” the imp answered, “So you want it all back then, your title, lands and wealth is that it?” he asked Maurice.

“Yes, I do” he replied.

“Hypothetically speaking" the imp questioned the former lord, "if I were to restore your lands and title to you minus the ogres of course what would you offer me in return?”

Maurice blinked "in return?" he echoed.

"Yes indeed dearie, what you ask requires magic and all magic comes with a price."

Unthinking Maurice answered “anything” at which the dark one giggled.

“oh I do love it when they say that” after a beat he asked “for whom was the rose intended?”

Maurice reluctantly answered “my daughter”.

“She is your only child?” the imp questioned again.

“Yes” came the whispered reply and sweat now poured from Maurice’s brow. Wanting to draw the beast’s attention away from the subject of Belle, Maurice said to him “Restore my position as lord and I will give you as much gold as you wish for and for as long as you wish”.

However the dark one was not to be deterred when he wanted something “I make gold” he replied, “gold is easy, my price is something special, something harder to give up.” The dark one considered for a brief moment before turning to Maurice and saying “I will grant your request and restore your lands and titles to you in exchange for your daughter.”

Maurice nearly choked “My – no – my daughter is not a commodity” he replied.

“which is exactly why I want her” the dark one replied “I’m looking for a caretaker for my rather large estate, it’s your daughter or no deal.”

“No” Maurice said defiantly, “I’m sorry I cannot, I will not part with my daughter to a beast like you.”

The dark one who had begun circling Maurice during the latter part of the conversation now began to pace towards him, “You are an awful hypocrite dearie, you dare say to me that you don’t view your daughter as a commodity and yet if I were to give you back everything that you asked for the first thing you would do is marry her off for your own political gain to a different kind of beast.”

Although he was small and slim in stature, great power emanated from the imp and Maurice was very wary. “Very well that being the case, no deal for you dearie, I do hope you like dungeons because you’re going to be spending the rest of your life in mine” and with a snap of the imp’s fingers and before he had even a chance to protest, Maurice found himself locked in a cold, dark cell that was draughty and reeked of dampness, shivering he curled up in a vain attempt to keep warm. "Sleep tight dearie" the imp snarked through the door "don't let the bed bugs bite" and with that he was gone and Maurice was alone and freezing in his cell.


	4. Forever Dearie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belle and Rumple meet for the first time when she arrives at the castle in search of her father. Again there are some Rumbelle snippets that were deleted from the show in this chapter. See if you can pick them out. There will be others in future chapters as well.

Back at the village the next day and Belle had just foiled another one of Gaston’s attempts to marry her and this time it had been an actual wedding set up right outside her own front door, that’s how absolutely certain he was that Belle would say yes, honestly the man was so oblivious to the fact that she was not madly in love with him it was almost painful. She had been curled up reading a book that morning when he had knocked on the front door and she had let him in, he had proceeded to brag about how this was the day her dreams were all going to come true because she was going to marry him.

Belle had been only too happy to disappoint him, her dreams amounted to a lot more than massaging his stinking feet or being a brood mare to produce the six or seven strapping sons he apparently wanted. At her refusal Gaston had become unpleasant and backed her against the front door, she kept him talking while she fumbled with the doorknob and just as the self-centred brute leaned in for a kiss, she opened the door and he promptly fell right out of the house and into the puddle of mud the pigs liked to roll in.

Belle had remained inside the house until she was sure Gaston was gone and then emerged to feed the chickens and goats she and her father kept and go for a walk in the meadow nearby, “imagine being the wife of that arrogant, boorish, brainless git” she muttered to herself as she scattered some feed about the ground, “no sir, not me, I can guarantee it and heaven help the poor woman who does end up marrying him.”

As soon as she was finished with feeding the animals she headed for the meadow. She lay down on the grass and began twirling a flower between the tips of her fingers, “Excuse me but I want a lot more out of life than marrying that lummox, I want to see the world and have adventures and I want it more than anything” she thought to herself, “No one understands that I want more than life in a small provincial town can offer me” she sighed.

Belle was distracted from her musings when Philippe suddenly burst on to the meadow alarmed and still towing the cart behind him but with no papa in sight Belle became alarmed. “Philippe” she cried “what are you doing here? Where’s..Where’s papa?” she asked as she tried to calm the huge horse. “Where is he Philippe?, we have to find him, you have to take me to him” as she said this she ran to the house to retrieve her cloak, ran back and disconnected the cart from Philippe and climbed on his back “take me to papa Philippe” she whispered and with a nudge of her heels the horse took off.

A day later Philippe had lead her through the forest, down a strange road full of mist and shadows to a huge, imposing castle behind massive gates. “What is this place?” she said aloud. Philippe grew alarmed again and she tried to calm him as she dismounted, turning she glimpsed her papa’s hat on the ground, she ran to it and picked it up. “Papa” she whispered as she held the hat close to her and looked up at the castle again, her papa was in there somewhere and she was going to find him and bring him home no matter what.

She pushed open one of the great doors and entered a grand foyer “hello” she called she could hear the nerves in her voice but carried on “is anyone here? hello, papa?” she made her way up and down vast corridors “papa, are you here?” She was oblivious to the fact that she had been watched intently from the moment she had entered the castle, it was richly decorated but very dimly lit and for the most part the place seemed deserted to her and she saw many strange objects and sculptures as she searched for her papa and occasionally whirled around in fear almost certain that she had felt someone’s breath on the back of her neck only to find herself looking down an empty hallway. A suspicion formed in her mind about the castle as she wandered it's halls, fuelled by memories of some scant passages she'd read in one of her books about a dark sorcerer and rumours that she'd heard in recent years but she decided to put it to the back of her mind until after she'd found her father. 

She continued searching but the castle was almost like a maze and she started to feel like she was going around in circles until found herself on a corridor she hadn’t seen before in the dark although she could have sworn she’d seen purple smoke briefly swirling at her feet when feeling a chill at her ankles she had glanced down. “My mind playing tricks on me” she reasoned to herself “Papa” she called again and she heard a door that she’d just passed creak behind her as if someone had just gone through it.

“Papa?” she asked opening the door fully, “hello” she called seeing no one “is someone here?” and then she saw what seemed to be the glow from a light moving down some stairs ahead of her “wait” she begged following the glow “I’m looking for my father, I…” but when she rounded the corner there was no one there and she was faced with an empty dungeon “that’s funny, I’m sure there was someone.”

“Is anyone here?” she tried again, “Belle” the voice of her father answered her and she saw his face peak out between the bars at bottom of the door to one of the cells. “Papa” she cried in relief that she had found him, running over to his cell and grabbing a flickering torch she knelt down in front of the door.

“How did you find me? Maurice asked of her but she ignored his question when she grasped one of his hands and he began to cough badly, “oh your hands are like ice we have to get you out of here.” she said. Maurice however paid her words no heed “Belle, I want you to leave this place” he spluttered between fits of coughing, Belle ignored him, she wasn’t going anywhere without him.

“Who’s done this to you” she asked full of anger, “no time to explain” Maurice replied frantic in case the imp returned and caught Belle trying to free him “you must go now”. Belle however was a stubborn girl “I won’t leave you” she protested but suddenly she felt that sensation of someone breathing on the back of her neck again and she was grasped and pinned to the wall, she shouted startled and dropped the torch, it’s flame extinguished in a puddle leaving the few light streams coming from the barred window of another open cell as the only source of light. She panicked when she noticed that she was being held seemingly by an invisible hand and a voice spoke.

“Well, well” the oddly high pitched voice came from the shadows “I assume this must be the daughter you spoke of” he said addressing first Maurice and then Belle “come to free papa have we?” he asked her snidely.

“Whose there, who are you” Belle asked feeling genuine fear for the first time since the ogres.

“The master of this castle of course” the strange voice answered.

“Yes of course I’ve come for my father” she replied “please let him out, can’t you see he’s sick” she pleaded. 

“Well he shouldn’t have come here with the intentions of trying to control me nor should he have pilfered from my gardens then he wouldn’t be stuck in a dank cell getting sicker by the day would he?” came the retort.

“Control you, what are you talking about, actually forget about it, it doesn’t matter he can tell me himself when I get him home?” she told the voice.

“Your assuming I’m just going to let him walk out of my dungeons just like that, I don’t think so dearie he’s my prisoner” the voice replied. 

“But he could die, please I’ll do anything” she begged. 

“There must be something I can”…she began but he, whoever he was, cut her off “anything” he mused then he addressed Maurice again.

“I assume you remember the deal I proposed to you earlier?”

“Yes” Maurice spluttered “and my answer is still the same as it was then.”

“Oh, such a pity that” the voice mused.

“what deal?” Belle questioned the voice.

“Well dearie your father didn’t stumble upon my humble abode by accident, he came here intentionally to use something of mine to control me and make me restore to him the title and lands that he lost to the ogres during their rampage. I gave him food and a fire to warm himself by and offered to make him a deal even after he pilfered a rose for you from my garden. I offered him all that he asked for in exchange for something special" and he paused for effect and then said “you, dearie, you were the price I named, your papa refused the deal and what do you know” he said his voice going higher "he found himself locked in a cell in my dungeon.”

“You locked him in one you mean” Belle snapped back at him, the owner of the voice giggled and replied “yes, yes I did and that’s exactly where he’s going to stay” the voice sounded like it was moving further away from her, leaving the room she thought. 

A sinking feeling filled the pit of Belle’s stomach over what she was about to do but she felt that there was no other choice, she had come to free her father and she was intent on doing exactly that. “No wait” she said and she felt the invisible hand holding her against the wall loosen its grip so she took a step forward, “take me instead then” she said.

“You would take his place?” the voice asked.

“No Belle, you don’t know what you’re doing” her father protested from his cell.

“If I did would you let him go, would you hold up your end of the bargain and grant him what he asked for in the deal?” she asked.

“Yes", the voice answered her "but you must promise to stay here with me forever dearie, stay forever and your father will have all that he asked for, you have my word”.

Belle squinted trying to peer through the darkness to catch a glimpse of the owner of the voice. “Come into the light, I want to see who or what I’m dealing with” she told him.

“Smart girl” he murmured. Slowly he began to step forward into the narrow strips of light first one pointy toed knee high boot then the other, the light climbing up the surprisingly short and slim frame clad in skin tight leather trousers, a silk shirt and a brocade waistcoat and glinting off of the shimmering, scaly, greenish gold looking skin on his face and hands which had dark claw-like nails, there was also a mop of unruly waved hair, unusually large golden reptilian eyes and dirty chipped teeth. She had to admit she was shocked, she even thought he might once have been handsome, his appearance was certainly not what Belle had been expecting “you have my word” she told him. 

He looked at her with an expression that if she didn’t know any better she would say was something akin to admiration and his eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of his head “very well then, the deal is struck” he answered giggling strangely. With a click of his fingers the door to Maurice’s cell swung open and he ran out grasping Belle by the shoulders “No Belle listen to me, I’m old, I’ve lived my life”.. but he didn’t have a chance to finish as the dark one grasped Maurice by the scruff of his neck and began dragging him out and up the stairs.

“Wait” Belle called behind him “wait” but her new master did not stop or turn back.

The dark one dragged Maurice out of the castle and deposited him on Philippe, he waved his hand clothing Maurice in lordly attire and addressed him “Congratulations, You will find that your lands in Avonlea have been restored and you are once again a lord, your subjects have also been returned to their former homes as well and the ogres are gone for good. I don’t want to see you here again, your daughter is no longer your concern and she won’t be able to save you from me a second time should you be foolish enough to return.” Then he placed his hands on either side of Philippe’s face and spoke “take your master home” he commanded the horse and with that he removed his hands and Philippe set off in the direction of Avonlea. 

He turned and re-entered the castle heading back down to the dungeons where he’d left the girl, he decided that as she had only come to rescue her father and not to harm him, he would not subject her to staying in the dungeons besides her bravery in staying in her father’s place warranted better treatment than that.

Belle was on her hands and knees crying when she heard her master return “you didn’t even let me say goodbye” she told him angry and upset “I’ll never see him again and I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

He paused awkwardly for a moment, unsure of how to act “I’ll uh show you to your room” he said in reply sounding slightly chagrined.

“My room?” she asked looking at him questioningly.

“Does the idea of remaining in the dungeon hold some appeal for you dearie?” he snapped.

“No” she answered timidly “then follow me” he replied gruffly, picking up a candelabra which lit as soon at his touch as he walked away from her.

As she followed him through the castle she stole glances at the carvings of different creatures, dragons and serpents that lined some the corridors, some of them seeming to move she gasped and hurried to keep up with her master finding him standing watching her with an odd look on his face, it was strange and she couldn’t account for it but she felt safer walking right beside him at that moment than she did with having any distance between them, another effect that the strange décor of the castle was having on her she supposed. 

They said nothing to each other at first as he led her through the castle but he had felt thoroughly chagrined when she’d berated him for not letting her say goodbye to her father and now he noticed the tears still rolling down her face. He decided to attempt a conversation with her after all if she was going to be his maid for the rest of her life they would need to talk to each other at some point in time.

“The castle is your home now dearie so you can go anywhere you like, except the west wing, it is a very large castle and I know it will probably take some time for you to find your way around.”

“What’s in the west.. she began to ask but he quickly cut her off as he stopped walking causing her to almost smack right into him, “that is on a need to know basis dearie and you do not need to know because it's forbidden to you” he told her sharply, when she said nothing more he turned and continued walking until they came to a set of double doors in one of the more normal looking corridors. He opened them and indicated that she should enter. She gasped as she realised she was standing a very luxurious bedroom which held a huge bed, a dresser and wardrobe and had an attached bathroom. “This will be your room dearie, the one part of the castle which belongs to you and you alone, this castle works using magic if you should need anything you need only ask aloud and it will attend to all of your needs."

She nodded her head acknowledging his words but stood in one spot without saying anything, her gaze locked on the window watching the blizzard which had begun to rage outside. She turned and addressed him then “You’re the dark one aren’t you?” she asked voicing her earlier suspicions about the castle and him for the first time. “I had read about this place and you but there are so many different accounts and rumours of you that I found myself not knowing what to believe.”

He eyed her curiously “I am” he answered.

“How am I to address you?” she asked of him “unless you prefer me to call you master that is?”, his cheeks darkened slightly and if she didn’t know any better she would almost swear that she’d made him blush but with his scaly gold skin she couldn’t tell.

“Rumplestiltskin” he answered.

“what?” she asked.

“My name” he said “is Rumplestiltskin, consider yourself one of a privileged few dearie, names have power and I’m not in the habit of giving mine out to everyone I meet”. 

“Very well Rumplestiltskin, my name is Belle she said as she turned and ventured further into her room. 

“Belle” he said as if testing the word, “well Belle your first duty here will be to join me for dinner this evening at six o’clock and just to be clear that isn’t a request so don’t be late” and immediately she whipped around to face him and tell him exactly what he could do with his dinner but he slammed her door closed before she could say anything and she could hear him giggle that strange high-pitched giggle as he walked off.

The shock of the whole day suddenly hit her and she collapsed on the bed crying, she lay there for what seemed to her like hours until she began to feel thirsty. Well he’d said the castle would give her everything she needed didn’t he and she certainly wasn’t going to chance leaving the room or have dinner with him that night, he’d robbed her of her father and her dreams all in one day and the last thing she wanted right now was to have to speak to him or even look at him for that matter. So feeling a little silly she tentatively asked aloud for some tea, a moment later a tea tray was sitting on the bed beside her, “thank you” she said aloud as she began sipping her tea. 

Rumplestiltskin meanwhile was standing in the great hall in front of a roaring fire contemplating his thoughts about the girl over a glass of his finest whiskey. She certainly lived up to her name, a true beauty if ever he saw one, lustrous chocolate curls, stunning blue eyes that reminded him of the ocean, gorgeous pale creamy skin and a petite curvy figure. As soon as she’d said he had her word, he knew he was a goner, he admired her greatly for her bravery in staying with him in her father’s place, it was only a matter of time before…and when she’d asked him if he preferred her to call him master… oh no he snapped ready to kick himself for where his train of thought was leading him besides a beautiful girl like her would never want to be touched by the likes of him.

He would lay down the law as a master should to a new maid and then keep his distance, yes that’s what he would do. Speaking of which, he glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece, it read half past six, “where the hell is she, I told her to come down here, why isn’t she here yet?” he snapped to himself knocking back the remainder of his whiskey and stalking out of the room and up the stairs to Belle’s room.

It was half past six when Rumplestiltskin banged so loudly on her door she thought it might come off its hinges, “I thought I told you to come down to dinner dearie” he shouted.

“I’m not hungry” she snapped back through the door, he sighed running his hand down his face in frustration and decided to try a politer tone.

“Will you come down to dinner” and then after a beat he added on a “please”, honestly the dark one reduced to begging his maid to come down to dinner with him, and she hadn’t even been in his castle a full day, what was the world coming to.

“No” she replied sharply.

“It would give me great pleasure if you would join me for dinner” he asked her again his voice dripping with sarcasm this time and every word nearly choking him on the way out.

“No thank you” she replied.

“You can’t stay in there forever dearie” he was starting to get annoyed now.

“Yes I can” she retorted.

“Alright if that’s your game then know this missy, if you don’t eat with me, you won’t be eating at all, who do you think controls the magic that flows through this castle and gave you your tea earlier hmm, so if you want to stay in your room by all means go ahead and starve or you can do things my way, I’ll be waiting for you in the great hall, you have fifteen minutes.”

Belle was outraged that he could command her so but she tried to reason with herself as she heard him stomp away from her door that he was her master now and she was his maid so she was expected to do as he told her. Still feeling distressed about the whole day she rose from the bed and tentatively opened the door. The corridor was mercifully empty and closing her door behind her she ventured down the staircase and towards the doors of the great hall which stood open allowing her to see the glow from the fire.

There was a large dining table with one chair at its head in which Rumplestiltskin was seated and currently nursing a glass of whiskey. She took the opportunity to look around the room spotting many odd objects displayed like trophies on pedestals and behind glass cases, some of them looked familiar and reminded her of objects she had read about and she made a mental note to revisit that observation at some point in the future if she had the opportunity and she also noticed a spinning wheel at the far end of the room.

“Ah” his strange voice broke through her thoughts “appetite finally get the better of you did it dearie” he snarked, “well now that you have finally emerged from your little sanctuary your may serve me some tea” he said and with a click of his fingers a tea tray appeared at the far end of the table, she approached it and as she began to prepare his tea he spoke again. “I think it’s time we lay down a few ground rules and discuss what your duties here will be dearie, you will serve me my meals and you will clean the dark castle”.

“I understand” she replied.

“You will dust my collection and launder my clothing”.

“Yes” she replied again determined not to be rattled no matter what he asked of her.

“You will fetch me fresh straw when I’m spinning at the wheel” he went on.

“Got it” she said nodding and reaching for a cup to pour the tea.

“Oh and you will skin the children I hunt for their pelts” he said with a wicked grin, appalled Belle gasped and dropped the cup she had been holding on to the floor, looking at him in shock.

“That one was a quip, not serious” he said still grinning, clearly amused at her reaction. At that she nodded relieved and knelt down to retrieve the cup.

“Oh dear lord” she thought to herself when she examined it, “I’m uh so sorry but it’s..it’s chipped” she said showing him the cup from where she knelt on the floor, at this he looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face “you..you can hardly see it” she stuttered, and then he knew, she thought she’d angered him and was afraid of what he was going to do in retaliation. “Oh it’s just a cup” he replied and at that she half smiled and stood and poured him another cup of tea. 

Rumplestiltskin continued to rattle off rules to her such as “I have placed an enchantment around the walls of the castle so while you may venture into the garden as often as you like, you can’t set a foot outside the walls surrounding it, don’t open the front doors to anyone, I deal with some unpleasant people at the best of times and your being here is none of their concern so if in the rare event I should have a visitor you are to make yourself scarce unless I tell you otherwise."

"I have a workroom in highest tower of the castle, you are not to disturb me while I am there unless I say otherwise, lots of nasty potion ingredients up there dearie wouldn’t want to get any of them on you, and on that subject I frequently go away for business deals which means you will be alone in the castle during those times, do not under any circumstances go near my workroom when I am not here. Do not touch any of the objects in my cabinet or those on display some of them are enormously powerful and some of them are even cursed and I don’t want you messing about with things you don’t understand.” 

“Oh and one more thing dearie, keep an eye out for some of the furniture around here, some of my guests have been swallowed by the odd sofa or wardrobe down through the years and I'm fairly certain that there's a boxing coat stand somewhere in the castle as well. My own fault really, I enchanted some of the objects here decades ago to act as my guard dogs of sorts when I was out making deals and such, even got caught by one myself once when I slipped on a rug and that dearie is definitely not a quip.”

“Watch out for the violent, man-eating furniture, got it” she replied trying to keep a straight face and not laugh her ass off at the picture that was currently forming in her head of Rumplestiltskin the infamous dark one being slipping on a rug and being swallowed head first by his own armchair.

She took another look around the room after serving him his cup of tea thinking that he had finished speaking to her and was startled out of her thoughts when he addressed her again “you agree with your father, don’t you?” he asked her.

“Usually” she replied shortly.

“You think I’m a beast?” he said.

“No” she answered again giving him the shortest possible answer.

“Your father just spent the better part of the past three days in my dungeon” he pointed out.

“That was very beastly of you, yes, now that you mention it” she answered cheekily and he seemed to be startled for a moment by her answer but was suddenly distracted when a messenger dove flew in to the room, as he began to read the message attached to its leg he failed to notice Belle eyeing one set of doors out of the room.

“Well it seems your father has arrived safely back in Avonlea which is now fully restored and occupied by all of its former inhabitants and no ogres” he told her.

“That is wonderful news” she replied "how did you do it?" she asked him

“Magic of course dearie, not to mention ogres are superstitious and greedy. A few whispers and some gold…” Belle edged out of the room only to find herself entering the very same room through another set of doors opposite the ones she had tried to leave through. Rumplestiltskin looked up but her attempted escape barely seemed to register with him, “and the deal was done.” he continued speaking as though she hadn’t moved at all. “I see you’ve found some magical precautions I took. There is no escape.” He said giving her a brief moment and watching her face as the message sunk in. “You’re going to spend the rest of your life here, dearie. I hope you like my home.”


	5. Visitors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belle is initially upset over her deal with Rumple but she then begins to adjust to life at the dark castle quite well and snarkiness ensues between Belle and Rumple. The castle receives visits from a queen and an outlaw. The Robin Hood incident doesn’t go exactly the way it did in the show. WARNING: Minor character death in this chapter.

The Dark Castle was huge, Belle had barely begun to make headway in cleaning it and it was already taking her from morning til night.  She would rise early in the morning, wash and get dressed and make her way straight to the kitchen where she would prepare Rumplestiltskin’s morning tea and breakfast if he had made a request for it the night before.

Then when she had brought her master’s tea from the kitchen to the great hall on a tray and placed it on the table, she would return to the kitchen to collect her own breakfast before she set herself to her tasks for the day.  She swept the floors, dusted the furniture, she was going through the castle one room at a time for that, she scrubbed the floor and stairs in the foyer which had been a monumental task taking her the better part of a whole day.

She dusted the cases that housed Rumplestiltskin's magical objects and she washed his clothes and bedding and even polished his boots and cooked dinner and supper for them both and he was still insistent that they eat all of their meals together.

Although Belle had become accustomed to housekeeping duties when she and her father had settled in the village, the work in the Dark Castle because if it's sheer size was in a different league altogether and she was left aching and exhausted from it on top of being heart sore over not being able to see her father and collapsed into her bed every evening falling straight to sleep. This routine of bed to work went on for about a month until one afternoon while Belle was in the middle of dusting the great hall she noticed a book lying at the head of the table.  Rumplestiltskin had obviously been reading and had left it lying there when he’d been abruptly called away on business earlier.  Usually he kept his books either in his workroom or locked behind glass doors and some protection spells in two cabinets in the wall on either side of the fireplace in the great hall.

Intrigued and after not having read a book for a month, Belle picked up the tome and started to flick through the pages it was a book about magical realms. There was a realm with witches and flying monkeys and a realm of black and white which was filled with monsters and these were only two of many.  Fascinated Belle sat down at the table in her master’s chair and got so lost in her reading that she didn’t notice the time flying by. By late evening Belle was still curled up with the book, completely engrossed when Rumplestiltskin returned home.  “What’s this, reading on the job dearie? Have you finished all of your chores for the day already?” Belle jumped up and off of the seat.

“I’m sorry” she began “It was just lying there on the table and.. she began to explain but he cut her off “and my nosey little maid couldn’t help herself and started reading when she should have been starting to cook dinner” he said.

“Well, yes” she replied “I’ve always loved reading any book I could get my hands on and I found it absolutely fascinating” she told him.

He blinked “Found it fascinating” he repeated her words, “You mean to tell me you’ve finished it already?"

Belle blushed slightly at this as she replied “Well as I said I’ve always been an avid reader and when I was in the village I used to go through books so fast the bookstore owner couldn’t get new books in fast enough to keep up with me.”

He eyed her curiously as he rested his chin on one hand for a moment “Interesting” he mused then said “well unfortunately for you and your literary appetite I can’t have you reading books about anything to do with magic, you could get yourself into all sorts of trouble dearie” and the book disappeared from the table.

Belle huffed “As if I’m not in trouble now” she muttered under her breath.

Rumplestiltskin eyed her “What was that dearie?” he asked her casually.

“Nothing” she replied but she still felt testy over the confiscation of the book.

“Then away with you to the kitchen little maid, you have a dinner to prepare he told her gesturing towards the doorway with his hand. “Yes oh Master” she snarked under her breath heading for the kitchen door.

“I heard that” he said.

A few days later they had a visitor.  It was late evening and Belle was up in the upper levels of the castle on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor of the one of the hallways when a dark haired woman dressed in ghastly rags barged in through the doors of the castle calling out her master’s name.  Belle was up high enough that she couldn’t be seen by the woman so she stayed where she was, occasionally peeking through the gaps in the marble balustrade.

Her master was standing in front of the table in the middle of the foyer when the woman entered.  Their voices echoed and Belle had heard every word.  The woman turned out to be Queen Regina and apparently she had wanted Rumplestiltskin to remove a spell that he had placed on her.

Belle was already pre-disposed to hate the woman. Queen Regina was well-known throughout the land as a cold, hateful, heartless ruler who was disliked by all who knew of her, her reputation for being power mad and letting her people starve on the streets, preceded her in every corner of the land.  Belle also remembered that neither Avonlea nor any other dukedom that had fallen under attack by the ogres had received any help from the Queen and none of the ambassadors they had sent to the dark palace had never returned.

She couldn’t help but think that they should have called on Rumplestiltskin for aid instead, at least he was reputed for always honouring his agreements.  She couldn’t help but wonder what his business with Regina was, from what Belle had heard during their conversation it sounded like Rumplestiltskin was stirring the pot so to speak encouraging the Queen’s evilness, the question was why.

After the woman departed Belle picked up her brush again and turned from the balustrade to go back to scrubbing the floor but instead she found herself looking at Rumplestiltskin’s boots.  “It’s not polite to eavesdrop” he said in his high pitch. Sighing Belle put the scrubbing brush down, sat back on her heels and looked up at him. He had a smirk on his face as he said “well you must have gotten quite the earful just now from your little vantage point up here dearie.”

“What business do you have with Regina?” She asked him suddenly her curiosity getting the better of her.

A look of surprise flitted across his face “You know Regina?” he asked his maid.

“I know of her” she corrected him "but I have never met the woman and nor do I wish to, she has a perfectly vile reputation” Belle answered.

“Nor shall you ever meet her for if she ever visits me again you are to go straight to your room and stay there until I come and get you and no spying” he chided her.

“Why?” Belle questioned him.

“Because as you may have gathered dearie from the conversation you were listening in on she is a witch with powers similar to mine but nowhere near as strong or as experienced with magic as I am and she certainly doesn't have as many tricks up her sleeves as I do either.  But she’s sneaky when she wants something desperately enough is that one and I don’t trust her as far as I’d throw her” he answered.

“You still haven’t answered my first question” she reminded him.

“Insolent little thing aren’t you dearie, demanding answers from your master like that? However my dealings with the queen are none of your concern, now back to your chores with you” he said turning, suddenly more serious than he usually was around her and walking away towards the west wing.

Belle’s second month in the castle started out worse than the first, for Rumplestiltskin that is.  His laying down the law to Belle on her first night seemed to be backfiring on him quite nicely.  For now Belle was becoming somewhat territorial over the areas of the castle that she had cleaned and laying down a few laws of her own.  Rumplestiltskin had returned home, appearing in the middle of the foyer covered in mud and what looked like some blood on his coat, boots and breeches one afternoon and had just been about to cross the foyer but a screech from Belle stopped him before he could move an inch.

“Don’t you dare traipse your muddy boots across my clean floor, I worked hard scrubbing layer upon layer of dirt off of this floor until it was spotless and not so you could make it filthy again” she shouted at him, Rumplestiltskin for his part stood temporarily frozen to the spot, shocked that his little maid had such a bark on her. It was true there were some parts of the enormous castle which hadn't been cleaned in years purely because he didn't make use of them.

When he did return to his senses he fixed her with a glare and said “Dearie last time I looked this was my castle, the whole thing, from the lowest floor to the highest ceiling and everything in between and if I feel like going out and rolling in the mud and then dragging it all in here with me I will and it will be you and your rags to clean up after me maid" he said trying to intimidate her.

But Belle didn’t budge from where she stood at the doors to the room opposite the great hall “don’t behave like such a beast” she told him “either clean yourself up now with magic or go back outside and take the boots and coat off there but you're not stepping a foot further into this castle in that state” she said with an air of finality about her and gesturing to his clothes.

So Rumplestiltskin feeling mischievous decided to test her metal with a different approach and turned flirtatious with her.  “You know dearie I can’t recall the last time I came home to a woman demanding that I take my clothes off, I must say it does wonders for a man’s ego” he said slyly.

Belle blushed but saw through his little charade “Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes Rumplestiltskin, clean them up or outside with you and take them off, now.”

The imp grumbled under his breath “Oh for the love of all that’s good and…fine, there, are you happy now, the precious floor will stay clean” he said sounding like a petulant child while snapping his fingers and instantly cleaning his clothes and boots.  

“Now was that so hard for you to do” Belle said doing her best to rub it in while smiling as sweetly as she could at him, secretly testing how far she could push him.  He glowered at her and stomped through the great hall to his spinning wheel, grumbling something about maids being more trouble than they were worth nowadays under his breath as he went.  Belle on the other hand had returned to her cleaning with a little smile on her face.  She had managed to get under his skin today, which meant her plan to get hold of some reading material by annoying Rumplestiltskin enough into letting her read just some of his books might actually work.

Similar incidents carried on for the rest of the week the final one happening when there was an explosion in Rumplestiltskin’s workroom up in the tower.  The castle was rocked to its very foundation and Belle who was in the kitchen preparing her master’s tea, had rushed through the great hall on her way to the stairs at the bottom of the tower when she saw him appear in front of her in a cloud of purple smoke in the foyer.

He was coughing and spluttering and covered in ash and waving his hand in front of his face, “good grief Rumplestiltskin, What did you do up there?” she asked him.

“Never..you..mind” he spluttered and staggered in to the great hall and made to sit down on the chaise and catch his breath when Belle stopped him.

“DON’T SIT ON THAT CHAISE” she yelled at him “I just dusted and cleaned it this morning you’ll cover it in ash.”

Rumplestiltskin whipped around to face her having managed to get his breath back, “I’ll just sit on the floor then shall I dearie?” he said sarcastically.

Belle scoffed at him “and ruin the beautiful rug that you yourself told me is a treasure from Agrabah and took me all of this morning to beat clean because you let it get so dusty I think not.”

He glared at her “I think you’ll find that it’s my rug dearie and we’ve had this conversation more than once recently, I have every right to leave it as dirty and dusty as I like if I so choose” he snapped. 

“I think you’ll find that as I’m the one who has to keep it and everything else clean in this castle now I have every right to demand that you make some effort to have some manners about you and not undo my hard work around here” she retorted.  Belle didn’t even have to say anything more, this time he just clicked his fingers, his clothes immediately cleaned and he vanished without another word.

Rumplestiltskin reappeared in his bedchamber, this had to stop, Belle had been at loggerheads with him over keeping things clean for the past week.  He didn’t know whether she was deliberately doing it to tweak his nose or if it was genuine, he suspected the former but either way it was driving him round the twist.  He had to find some way to distract his maid ironically enough from her developing obsession with cleaning and it had to be something she liked, something that would help to her to relax and unwind and not attempt to take his head off every time she spied so much as a speck of dirt on him.

Then a thought planted itself in his mind and Rumplestiltskin just knew, books, he remembered what she'd said about loving books, how she had been so wrapped up in his book when he arrived home after an impromptu visit to Regina and the expression on Belle's face when he had confiscated the book from her, her bolshiness with him over the housework had started at precisely that moment.  She's been tweaking his nose deliberately the sneaky little minx to annoy him into letting her read his books, _alright dearie_ he thought to himself  _this round goes to you, if you want books then books you shall have if that's what it takes to keep you out from under my heels when I'm working_.

Later that evening he was in the great hall spinning when the sounds of crying floated down the stairs to him.  He sighed this was something else that he was going to have to nip in the bud.  Belle had been crying every night when she went to bed and not sleeping properly since she’d arrived a month ago, and while he felt immensely guilty about it, it simply couldn’t be allowed to continue because he’d only end up doing something stupid like hugging her to make her feel better, and he couldn’t have that, he was the beast after all he had a reputation to uphold and comforting a crying girl just wouldn’t cut it.

He rose from his spinning wheel and marched out of the great hall and up the stairs, reaching belle’s room he flicked his wrist and the door opened.  Belle was lying curled up on the bed crying and he would have to be made completely out of stone for the sight not to tug at his heart strings.  But he certainly wouldn’t tell her that. “When you so eagerly agreed to come and work for me, I assumed you wouldn’t miss your father or your home quite so much” he said on entering the room.

“I made my sacrifice for my father of course I miss him you beast” Belle exclaimed rising from her bed to stand facing him.

“Yes, yes of course” he continued seemingly unfazed by her words “but the crying must stop” he told her.  “Night after night” he said gesturing wildly with his hands.  “It’s making it very difficult for me to spin, I do my best my thinking then.”  He stopped she was looking at him oddly as though his telling her to stop crying over missing her father was the most absurd thing and then she looked away from him.

“Here” he sighed and with a flick of his wrist the book he had found her reading appeared in her hands.

“For me?” she asked looking at him.

“Not quite so beastly now am I” he snarked before turning to leave her room.

“Thank you” Belle called out to him somewhat sarcastically “at least now I have something to keep me from dying of boredom.”  Unable to let anyone else have the last word in a verbal sparring match or to let Belle even consider for one second that he might be trying to do her a kindness Rumplestiltskin replied dryly “No, no, no, it’s not to keep you from boredom dearie, it’s to keep you quiet so I can get back to work.”

Belle was ready to let out a small whoop of victory when the book had appeared in her hand, Rumplestiltskin had come to the conclusion that she’d wanted him to: Books kept her occupied when she wasn’t doing her chores and a happily occupied Belle is a quiet Belle who isn’t content to plague her master and distract him from his own work.

The sound of glass smashing in the great hall interrupted her train of thought and distracted her master, there was an intruder in the castle and both Rumplestiltskin and Belle ran to apprehend him.  There was a man standing in front of one of the imp's display pedestals wearing dark green clothing with a hood covering his face and he carried a bow and a quiver of arrows with him.  The case he had broken contained a wand which according to Rumplestiltskin was very powerful.

“Are you sure you want to do this Dearie?” Rumplestiltskin asked the stranger who turned towards him lowering his hood “pretty sure” the stranger replied lifting the wand from its broken display case.  The mage addressed the man again somewhat snarkier this time “If you don’t know how to use that wand it can do nasty things to you” he said with a sly smile.

“Well then, the man replied “I’ll stick to what I know works, do you know what this arrow can do to you?” he said taking his bow and aiming an arrow straight at Rumplestiltskin’s chest.

“Has to hit me first” Rumplestiltskin retorted and in the blink of an eye he’d disappeared and then reappeared on the far side of the room.

“Shouldn’t be a problem” the thief answered "an arrow from this bow always finds its target, don’t you just love magic, I know I do” he quipped as he let the arrow fly at the imp who vanished again then reappeared directly behind the thief, hands clasped casually in front of him and a smirk plastered on his face.

The arrow struck Rumplestiltskin and he staggered back for a moment, Belle ran towards him thinking him grievously wounded and the thief proceeded to head for the doors carrying the stolen wand.  But suddenly Rumplestiltskin appeared right in front of him “as do I” he said while pulling the arrow right out of his chest and standing as if he hadn’t been struck at all.  The arrow vanished from his hand and the thief now bore a look of fear on his face.

“But don’t you know all magic comes with a price the imp quipped with a sinister look on his face “and in your case that’s me” he remarked reaching for the thief by his collar and disappearing.  They both reappeared in the dungeon where the imp swiftly strung the thief up and started on his work. 

Belle was not a happy woman the next morning as she swept the floor in an effort to try and distract herself from the screams emanating from the dungeon.  She was also no fool and understood in one way why her master insisted on punishing the man, because it reinforced the stories of his fearsome reputation and ensured that no one else would be stupid enough to try stealing from him again.  However she also thought that Rumplestiltskin was kicking up a very big fuss over a wand.

“I’m gonna need another apron” Rumplestiltskin commented as he entered the room ripping his current bloodied one off along with a pair of gloves.

“They’re ah on the line drying, it’ll be some time" Belle informed him.

“Fine, fine” he growled “get to cleaning this one as well he said as he tossed the apron on to the table just missing Belle by an inch with it “I’ll be back later” he told her.

“All this because he tried to steal a magic wand?” she asked him as he made to leave the room.

“No, because he tried to steal from me, the Dark One you try that you get skinned alive everyone knows that” he stated arrogantly and Belle couldn’t resist trying to take him down a peg by retorting “actually, no they don’t” but her master being who he was always got the last word in “well they will after they discover the body” he replied with a giggle and swaggered out of the room.

 _Oh that does it, I'm not letting you away with that_  Belle thought to herself.  As soon as Rumplestiltskin was gone Belle decided to go and speak to the thief, to find out why he wanted the wand, she just couldn’t let her master away with being so arrogant as to think he could kill someone over it.  Oh Rumplestiltskin certainly wasn’t going to like what she was about to do and there was a chance that she might live to regret it once he found out but there was something about his behaviour towards her of late that made her think otherwise.

Belle had pondered over him not wanting Regina to see her if she happened to visit again and his giving her a proper room when she first arrived.  Rumplestiltskin wasn’t obliged to give her a room, he could just as easily have left her locked in a cell in the dungeons.  Likewise he didn’t have to warn her about Regina, she remembered seeing many noblemen who couldn’t care less about their servants and who mistreated them when they were her father’s guests in Avonlea.  Rumplestiltskin was nothing like them.

In fact her master hadn’t so much as laid a finger on her since her arrival.  He didn’t have to give her a book either, something he now knew that she liked.  Plus there was also the obvious fact that Rumplestiltskin did not need a maid when he could very easily do every chore in his castle with just a click of his fingers, so why keep her around?

Could it be she mused that the dark one is not quite as beastly beneath that scaly exterior as he likes people to think he is and perhaps he was even, dare she think it, lonely when he had been on his own.  Belle was rapidly discovering that Rumplestiltskin was quite the mystery and she never had been able to resist solving a good mystery.

Belle made her way to the cell the thief was being held in with a tumbler of water in hand and unlocked the door “has he sent you to finish the job” the thief asked her.

“No, no” she replied bringing the water to his lips and letting him drink, I came to ask you something” she told him. “He’ll be back soon, so I don’t have time to help you beyond what I'm trying to do now so I need you to tell me the truth.  “Why the wand, what’s so special about it that you would put your life on the line by breaking in to the Dark One’s castle and stealing from him?  Why not make a deal with him for the wand instead, wouldn’t that have been a better approach?”

“I have no time to make a deal with him” the man spoke between sips of water, my wife, Marian she is very ill, dying as we speak and she is also carrying my child, the wand it can heal her if I get to her on time with it.  A friend of mine, arranged to bring her to a spot in Sherwood Forest by Gallows Oak and I was to be waiting there for them with the wand.”

Just then Rumplestiltskin arrived back, appearing in the cell “BELLE” he barked noticing her immediately he waved his hand and he and his maid reappeared in the great hall.  “Just what exactly do you think you were doing in there with that thief dearie?” he asked her.

“I was talking to him, giving him a chance to explain himself before you commit an unnecessary murder which I may add you have no right to” she replied indignantly.

“Oh I beg to differ" her master answered "the man is a thief, up to no good, breaking in to my home and stealing a wand from me because he wanted magic which gives me every right” Rumplestiltskin snapped.  “So what sort of a sob story did he feed you that makes you suddenly think that he’s a hero stealing from me for some noble cause, come on out with it dearie?” he ordered her and she related to him everything the thief whom she now knew was named Robin Hood had the chance to tell her.

Rumplestiltskin remained stubbornly unconvinced “Oh yes and you believe what you were told, you foolish gullible girl” he snapped at her. 

“As it so happens yes I do believe him because anyone would have to be absolutely desperate to break in and steal from you a bit like my father was remember that.  “You know a truly desperate soul when you see one” she pleaded with him. 

“Yes” he snapped “and desperate souls also have a nasty habit of lying through their teeth to get what they want dearie and anyone who tries to steal magic never has good intentions”

“No, you can’t tell what’s in a person’s heart until you truly know them” Belle protested as Rumplestiltskin approached the blades and other unpleasant implements lying on a cover at the end of the dining table.

“Oh and you truly know the thief after you’ve spent all of five minutes talking to him, do you? Well, we’ll soon see what’s in his heart alright because I’m going to make you a deal” he told her.

“A deal” she echoed.

“Yes", he replied that smirk blooming on his face again "if he is indeed telling the truth and his friend arrives with the woman and no one else as was arranged according to what he told you then I’ll let him live.  But if anyone else but the woman and the friend show up I’ll be working under the assumption that you were tricked and I’ll kill him and his wife for my trouble, how’s that for a deal?”

“Agreed” Belle said abruptly, I have complete faith that he told me the truth, he’s a good man I can see it in him” she told Rumplestiltskin firmly.

“Very well dearie, the deal is struck, I must confess I like your confidence, let’s just hope for our thief’s sake that it’s justified.”

They travelled in Rumplestiltskin’s carriage which of course used magic instead of an actual driver to guide the horses to their destination.  Belle sat on one side of the carriage while Robin Hood was on the other side stuck next to Rumplestiltskin who was checking the sharpness of the arrowheads he'd brought with him.  Not one single syllable was uttered between the three of them on their journey.

When they arrived at Gallows Oak which was deep in Sherwood Forest there was no one there yet. “We’re just on time, he should be here soon” Robin announced getting out of the carriage, Rumplestiltskin and Belle followed him. “You two wait back there” he said pointing to a small clearing from where they would have a good view of him “if John sees anyone but me he’ll turn back.”

“Did you have to bring those with you?” Belle asked the imp referring to the bow and quiver he now carried as they fell back to the spot Robin had indicated.

“Of course I did dearie” came the reply, "I’m a showman, if I’m going to kill him it’ll be with nothing less than his own bow and you’ll be the one to clean up the mess.”

Robin’s friend arrived on horse and cart with Marian a few moments later and Belle smiled smugly.  “There you see" she said “I told you he was telling the t…" she was cut off by the sound of more horses and group of riders dressed in black arrived in the clearing.

“You were saying” Rumplestiltskin asked as the riders approached Robin and Marian.  Belle remained adamant that Robin had been honest with them “He’s the one being ambushed here not us” she hissed at the imp.  “We’ll soon see” he muttered.

“Well, well if it isn’t Robin Hood” the sleazy looking git whom Belle assumed was the leader spoke "the thief who stole my woman and made me the laughing stock of the whole of Nottingham, I’ve caught up with you at last and it looks like I’m going to get two birds with one stone because you have my Marian with you as well” and then he spotted Belle and Rumple.

“You there, what are you doing in my woods” he barked at them.  Rumplestiltskin approached him and feigned politeness “Pardon the intrusion Sheriff, the same as yourself actually, hunting a thief” he said indicating Robin.

The Sheriff fixed his eyes on Belle standing behind the imp. “I know who you are” the Sheriff said addressing her master “and I know your reputation for making deals.  That’s a fine little wench you have there Rumplestiltskin, I don’t suppose you could spare her for an hour or so.”

This Rumplestiltskin could not let stand, “she is not for sale” he answered coolly.

“If you give me twenty minutes with her, I’ll let you have the thief to do with as you please as long as you let me take Marian back to Nottingham” the Sheriff tried his luck again.

Belle was horrified that he had immediately assumed she was a whore but she knew with absolute certainty that he would not be getting what he wanted because Rumplestiltskin was territorial over anything that he viewed as his and she felt no pity for the fate the Sheriff had surely sealed for himself.  Almost the exact same thoughts were running through her master’s mind at that moment.

Rumplestiltskin was seeing red and bore a look on his face that could be loosely interpreted as _you utter piece of shit, I wouldn’t give her to anyone much less the likes of you,_ and then the sinister smile that meant big trouble and usually had the effect of making people run screaming for the hills made its appearance.  The imp giggled “Now why would I agree to that when I can just kill all of you in one go” he said in his higher pitch. 

With a wave of his hand Robin, Marian, John and the Sheriff’s six men were temporarily frozen in place and the Sheriff found that he had suddenly parted company with his tongue which was now in the imp's hand.

“You ought to be more careful with your possessions” Rumplestiltskin said tossing the tongue over his shoulder, “however, you won’t have any need of that where you’re going” he coldly told the terrified Sheriff who was now shaking in his boots.  The imp held up his hand and the Sheriff levitated off the ground, “Belle look away now” he told his maid over his shoulder and when he heard the subtle rustle of her clothing which told him that she had turned to look the other way he closed his fist and the sheriff started choking, his limbs thrashing and his face turning different shades of red, purple and then blue until he ceased moving altogether and hung limp in mid-air.

Rumplestiltskin threw the Sheriff’s body against a tree with a wave of his arm and let it fall to the ground.  The sickening sound of bones breaking could be heard echoing around the clearing.  Then he turned to the men who had accompanied the Sheriff and said to them “you’re all witnesses first hand, go and tell all of Sherwood Forest what happens when you cross Rumplestiltskin” before unfreezing them.  The men immediately turned their horses, panicked and shouting and fled as fast as they could.

“Rumplestiltskin glanced back at Belle.  “You can look now dearie” he told her and as she slowly turned to face him he could see she looked shaken.  “Come along then maid, I have a thief to deal with and you are going to watch” he said gesturing to Robin and Marian who were still frozen in place.”

“Rumplestiltskin please you don’t have to do this” Belle began but he cut her plea short.  “But nothing, you made a deal with me dearie remember?”  He unfroze Robin and Marian who now looked absolutely terrified. “Please” Robin began “I didn’t lie to you I swear, I didn’t know he would be here, he must have followed John.”

“All magic comes with a price dearie, the imp told him “however I’m find myself feeling uncharacteristically generous given that I’ve already done my killing for the day” Belle’s head snapped up so fast to look at her master that Rumplestiltskin swore he heard something crack and almost winced at the sound.

“So Rumplestiltskin continued “you can live and so can she” he gestured to Marian and from an inner pocket of his cloak brought out the wand Robin had attempted to steal.  He passed it over Marian from her head to her toes and back again and the colour began to return to her cheeks and her coughing stopped.  The imp pocketed the wand again and prepared to leave.

“Why? Don’t get me wrong”, Robin said holding up his hands, "I’m truly grateful and I don’t know how to thank you or Belle for believing me when I told her but why?” he asked the imp.

“Because I’m not the kind of man who would leave a child without its parents” Rumplestiltskin said gesturing to Marians rounded belly.  “I may be a beast but even I have my limits.  Now go before I change my mind” he said “and if you really want to thank me never tell anyone that you managed to break in to my home in the first place.”

As Marian and Robin departed, Rumple picked up the bow and quiver of arrows to return to the carriage, but Belle had crept up behind him and she had a beaming smile on her face.  “You let them go” she said to him.

“What, nonsense I was momentarily distracted and they escaped” he quipped.

“I’m proud of you Rumplestiltskin” she told him “I was right about the thief when I had faith in him, but I also had faith that you would soon see the truth of the matter as well and I was right about you too.”

"I take it you don't object to the Sheriff's fate then?" he remarked.

"After the remarks he made about me and about Robin and Marian, not at all" she replied "Sherwood Forest has one less rodent in it today than it did yesterday, he deserved what he got."

Belle stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around him in an embrace before she let go and turned back to head for the carriage, halfway there she partly turned again “aren’t you coming?” she asked him. Rumplestiltskin for his part had been shocked into silence which was a rarity for him, by her hug, when he remembered to move again he picked up the quiver of arrows and followed her back to the carriage with a brief small smile appearing on his face and a mental note to strengthen the wards on the castle.

It was late when they returned home, and she remarked on his no longer needing the bow as he entered the great hall and hung said bow and the quiver on the back of his chair while she paused at the doors.  “Actually I think I’ll hold on to it, you never know, could come in handy someday” he told her.

“Well ah if you don’t need me for anything else, good night Rumplestiltskin" she said turning to leave the doorway and go upstairs for the night.

“No wait” he gently called out to her “there is something else”.

He led her in a direction of the castle that she had neither gotten round to cleaning or exploring yet, to a tower opposite the one which housed his workroom. Belle’s jaw hit the floor when she saw the room he led her into. It was filled from floor to ceiling with shelves packed full of books, mountains of books on every subject imaginable.  There were ladders and narrow stairways leading up to the higher shelves, and a beautiful large window which would let in plenty of light on summer days she’d wager.  Belle was positively gobsmacked, she had never seen so many books in all her life, this made her mother’s library in Avonlea look like a charity case and made her forget that the charming little bookshops in the village and the city even existed.

“Temper your excitement dearie, this is merely another room for you to clean” Rumplestiltskin told her.

“It’s beautiful, there’s more books in here than I could read in lifetime” she told him still drinking in the sight of it.

“Well I hope you can clean faster than you can read” he said watching her as she lifted a book from the table and flipped open the cover.

“Did you do all of this for me?” she asked him when she looked up at him again.  That was hitting too close to the mark for his liking, he’d done exactly that but he certainly wasn’t about to admit it openly. Instead he told her “I better not see a single speck of dust gathering on any of these books” pointing his finger for emphasis and she smiled at his subtle order not to let her new reading material go to waste. “What are you smiling at I’m serious” he said very unconvincingly.

She took his hand in her own and her lack of revulsion at touching him seemed to pleasantly surprise him. “You’re not who I thought you were” she said softly with a smile “and I’m glad”. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gallows Oak is the spot in Sherwood Forest where Robin Hood had all of his men assemble in The Adventures of Robin Hood the 1938 movie starring Errol Flynn.
> 
> Ok so I have been re-watching episodes to help with writing this and I thought season 1 of the show was perfect and then from the very first moment of being on screen in season 2 Belle straight away started manipulating Rumple and emotionally blackmailing promises out of him not to kill the woman who deliberately separated them by kidnapping her and locking her away for 28 years, "promise me you won't kill her and we can be together" and Belle was used as a plot device to keep her jailer alive. 
> 
> The Robin Hood incident is one of the Rumbelle scenes in the show that the more I watch it the more I actually find myself disliking it except for the library part that is and I’ll explain why. Making Belle such a heavy moral compass for Rumple was a very bad idea as far as I’m concerned because it said to me Rumple can’t possibly do anything good of his own accord or without Belle pushing him into it. Plus it also plainly told viewers that this is Belle’s only purpose on the show instead of being a decent strong, intelligent, adventurous and brave character in her own right, 1991 Belle is all of these things as well as a lover of books, OUAT Belle isn't and I'm sorry if that offends any OUAT Belle fans reading this but the OUAT writers haven't done her justice in my opinion. 
> 
> This is also ignoring the fact that Rumple was a good guy in the beginning before he took on the curse and that if there hadn’t been any good left in him, no amount of persuasion, imploring or bargaining from Belle would change his mind about killing someone. I guess what I’m saying is the writers gave Belle too much credit for the goodness in Rumple and not enough credit to Rumple for it. That’s something else I don’t like about the writers the only way they have ever tried to give Belle attention, to build on her character or make people feel anything for her is by detracting from Rumple’s character and painting him as a bastard and I’m sorry but attempting to build up her character and make her look good and morally superior by tearing down his character is not good writing. I am a Beauty and the Beast fan, 1991 Belle fan, Rumple fan, Rumbelle fan and if Belle were better written on the show I would be an OUAT Belle fan but as it stands at the moment I’d be happy if they left her in Pandora’s Box, I know that sounds awful. I've seen other people say the same thing in comment sections on various TV show websites and that is a sorry state of affairs for any character when the writers have done such a crappy job that people wouldn’t be bothered if the character wasn’t in the show anymore, but I just cringe every time Belle is on screen now.


	6. The Thing You Love Most

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rumplestiltskin is busy making deals and acquiring enchanted objects while Belle searches through the castle in his absence. Rumple finally begins to talk to Belle a little bit about his things and someone attempts to abduct Belle from the castle grounds but things don’t go according to plan. A deleted Rumbelle scene from the show made it in to this chapter. WARNING: Minor character deaths in this chapter.

Belle and Rumplestiltskin were falling in to a comfortable routine of sorts, and while Belle was still not completely content, since he had given her the library under the guise of being merely anther room for her to clean she had been happier with her situation than she was when she had first agreed to stay with him.

Rumplestiltskin had been very busy of late coming and going to make deals, he had been called first by a desperate King George whose kingdom was near bankruptcy thanks to the deal Rumplestiltskin himself had made with Regina when she asked him to disguise her as a peasant.

As Rumplestiltskin had predicted to himself King George had sought to increase his Kingdoms wealth by marrying his son Prince James to Princess Abigail the daughter of King Midas who had the ability to turn anything he touched into gold and was offering King George's kingdom riches if Prince James killed a dragon that was plaguing Midas's kingdom.  Now there was another story, Midas was greedy and years before he had made a deal with the imp for the ability to turn anything he touched into gold which Rumple accepted in return for Midas giving Rumplestiltskin the location of a satyr he was looking for at the time. The satyr was known for training warriors and Rumplestiltskin had a proposition for him, something that would make sure that Hades the ruler of the underworld and an enemy that almost everyone had in common would be forced to stay in the underworld.

Naturally the deal worked out beautifully for Rumplestiltskin and backfired spectacularly on Midas for in the King's haste he failed to be specific in the wording of his deal and absolutely everything he touched turned to gold.  He had to have someone to feed him, he couldn’t touch his wife or any other living being and was forced to wear gloves at all times to stop him from brushing against anyone or anything by accident.  He grew to hate his ability but now had no choice but to live with the consequences of the deal he’d made.

As it turned out Prince James had been killed and King George in his desperation to have his son brought back to life and retain the riches offered by Midas had summoned Rumplestiltskin.  It was through a deal years before with Rumplestiltskin that King George and his wife had obtained their son James in the first place as they had been unable to conceive an heir themselves.  So the sorcerer had found the poor family of the boy whom he had foreseen growing up and becoming Prince Charming and offered them the chance to save their farm if they would allow one of their twin sons to be adopted by the King and Queen which they reluctantly agreed to.

So Rumplestiltskin told King George that while “dead was dead” and he could not resurrect Prince James, he could replace him with his twin brother, a shepherd called David.  In exchange King George would tell the sorcerer the whereabouts of the fairy godmother who was patron to his family among others because she had a wand that he wanted.  The King agreed, Rumplestiltskin visited David to put his proposition to him that in exchange for playing the part of the Prince, his mother would be well cared for and want for nothing, David agreed and all was arranged. 

Rumplestiltskin left the king and his “son” to their dragon-slaying and went to find the fairy godmother.  He lay in wait among the shadows of the courtyard of a noble house, scoping out his target.  He watched as three women finely dressed for a ball departed from the house while a young servant girl dressed in rags swept the courtyard, occasionally stopping to stare dreamily at the fireworks and the castle in the distance. 

Then he saw her, the fairy godmother making her appearance, talking to the girl telling her she would attend the ball, he made his move as soon as he saw the wand and heard the fairy godmother tell the servant girl it would take her to her prince. A fireball took care of the insect nicely and he stood in her place bending down to pick up his shiny new toy. 

The girl, Cinderella as she was known was too easy, she was desperate to get away from her life of servitude and rather naively agreed immediately to give him anything he asked for when he proposed his deal of sending her to the ball to meet her prince in exchange for something precious.  He would collect on this deal another time there was no hurry for it to be completed now as it was part of a much bigger plan overall.

Lastly he had a trip to Camelot to make, there was a magic gauntlet there that he wanted to get his hands on.  He made a deal with Arthur, Camelot’s King.  Arthur had called for the imp’s aid as he was facing a battle for his throne against Mordred his illegitimate son with Morgan le Fay who was also Arthur’s half-sister.  Now there was a family that made Regina’s lot look almost normal, _almost_ , Rumplestiltskin thought to himself with some amusement.

In the meantime Belle had been left in the castle on her own for the first time and being unable to explore the castle gardens due to the snow which had coincidentally started to fall as soon as Rumplestiltskin had left to take care of business, her inquisitive nature had distracted her.  Rather than spending her time cleaning she was searching through some of the many magical objects that Rumplestiltskin kept in the great hall. 

She saw many intriguing items, a strange looking hammer, a golden fleece, a lamp, something that looked like a round crystal ball and a mysterious helmet, strange looking rings and amulets, a drawer full of wands, the bow and arrow which once belonged to Robin Hood and of course there where spools of gold thread scattered around which she had come to learn where the product of Rumplestiltskin spinning straw and she had found several of them in almost every room of the castle so far. 

There were also some swords scattered in various locations some on pedestals and one or two in his cabinet and propped up in a corner at the back of the cabinet was something that looked like an old gnarled walking stick.

Feeling bold, Belle lifted a sword down from the cabinet so that she could examine it.  She had never held a sword before and she felt giddy, what wouldn’t she have given to have had the same freedom as men had when she was back in Avonlea, to be trained to wield a sword and go on adventures instead of being taught etiquette and how to sew and embroider cushions.  Just as she was losing herself in daydreams while still holding the sword Rumplestiltskin’s voice sounded behind her, the master of the house was home earlier than expected.

“Don’t cut yourself dearie” he said to her by way of a greeting and startling her.  “I am so, so sorry” she began “I thought” but she was cut off.  “You thought I would be away for a few more days he said advancing casually towards her “and it would be fine to play with my..toys” he said as he gently took the sword from her.

 “Well you did say that…”

 “Oh I lied” he told her while retreating back to the dining table maintaining a space between them.  “I wanted to see how the mouse would play while the cat was away and the mouse has done very little cleaning” he said while running his finger along the table top and holding it up to show her the dust.

 “You just have so many things here" Belle told him "and from all over the world and I was curious" she said as he laid the sword on the dining table “and you never talk about them.”

“Well you’re the help" he said turning to observe her.  “And your rude” she said marching right up to him. 

“Well I could be much worse” he told her leaning in close enough to her that she could feel his breath on her face.  “But you’re not” she replied confidently keeping her eyes locked with his _which tells me that there is goodness in your heart and you are not the total beast you would have others think you are_ she thought to herself. 

“Look you have seen the world, something that I’ve always wanted to do, yet you share nothing” she said.

“Mouthy, mouthy” he snarked at her “and foolishly brave.”

“Now if you were going to kill me, you would have done it long ago” she replied.  “Now tell me what you’ve seen, how was your trip to Camelot?” she asked him.

“Ah good for me, not so good for Camelot” he told her shaking his head and being deliberately vague about the details while he paced away from the table where she was now perched, again putting distance between them.  He turned to face her and a gauntlet appeared in his hand in a cloud of purple smoke.  “A souvenir” he told her “clean it for me will you?” he said while handing it to her.

“Erm what is it?” she enquired.  “Well it’s a magic gauntlet with a very specific power, it can locate anyone’s greatest weakness” he answered. 

“How ominous” she commented still looking at the gauntlet inquisitively and turning it over in her hands examining it.  “But why do you need this?” she questioned him “with all your power, you could destroy any foe.”

“If you must know it’s about manipulation and for that you must find one’s weakness" he told her again walking back towards her “and for almost everyone that weakness is the thing they love most, and this will simply point me in the right direction” he said pointing theatrically for emphasis.   _I wonder what your greatest weakness is Rumple_ she thought to herself as she took the gauntlet to clean it.

A few days later Belle was serving Rumplestiltskin his tea when she announced as he dragged his saucer and teacup across the table towards him that she’d figured out why he collected so many magical objects like the gauntlet he’d brought home from Camelot.

He eyed her speculatively as he took a sip from his tea “I really need to find you more tasks” he told her setting his cup down. 

“You have a hole in your heart” she told him.  “No in my stomach” he replied snarkily and gestured with his hand as he attempted to change the subject.  “Because while you so ably made my tea, you forgot about the teacakes” a click of his fingers later and a plate full of teacakes appeared on the table, “must I do everything?” he asked her.

Not to be dissuaded Belle continued “you’re a lonely man” she said as he picked a teacake from the plate “and the fact is no matter how many things you acquire, that’s all they’ll ever be, things, and an awful way to fill a heart.”  

He looked down at the teacake which he still held in his hand and Belle could have sworn that she saw the briefest look of sadness cross his face but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.  “There’s only one thing missing from my life right now” he told her in a low voice and she tilted her head to the side looking intrigued until he said with smirk “clean clothes” and clicked his fingers.

A mountain of Rumplestiltskin’s sheets, breeches and silk shirts appeared on the table beside her and they were all unwashed.  “But I scrubbed these just yesterday” she told him.

“Well scrub them again dearie" he ordered her “You’re getting a bit too big for your breeches, you should remember your place, cleaning mine" he told her with a smirk and popped the teacake into his mouth.  She began to gather up the laundry shooting him dirty looks in the process while he chewed his teacake.  Without warning he clicked his fingers again and Belle found herself wrapped in her green and gold cloak which the imp had given her and standing outside the castle in the yard where she would usually scrub and hang the laundry.

“You’re just upset because you know I’m right" she spoke to the empty air as she hung a sheet on the line “and no I am not talking to myself because I know you can and do listen to me” she muttered.

Suddenly Belle heard barking as she made her way back to the laundry basket and peering between the sheets and shirts that were already fluttering on the line she saw a beautiful little puppy sitting on the ground it was white with black spots and Belle wondered how on earth it could have found its way to the castle. 

She was instantly suspicious and hesitant to approach the pup at first but it would be dark soon enough and the temperature was dropping, it was sure to snow again tonight and her concern for the little animal freezing to death got the better of her.

She walked slowly towards it not wanting to frighten it “hello puppy, hi, hi” she said in a gentle low voice but the pup immediately took off and into part of the garden that was dark and shrouded by large trees and looked more like a forest to Belle.

She followed it into the darkness but she couldn’t see the dog anywhere and she wondered where it could have gone.  When someone grabbed her from behind and put a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming.

In the castle Rumplestiltskin was feeling a tad guilty and knew he would have to apologize to Belle for making more work for her.  When suddenly he felt it, someone was trying to get past the wards that he’d set around the castle, _about time_ he thought to himself _what took you so long dearie_ and with a snap of his fingers he was standing outside the castle but behind the wall near the gates where he saw King Arthur and Belle lying in heaps on the ground, Belle’s hands were tied and it looked like she had bumped her head.  Amongst the trees on the other side of the boundary stood three old acquaintances of his – Cruella De Vil, Maleficent and Ursula the sea-witch. 

“Well if it isn’t the three stooges” he said dryly, eyeing them as they recoiled in fear but before they could move an inch he froze them where they stood. 

“I’ve been waiting for you dearie, what kept you” he said sarcastically turning to Arthur.  “I see you’ve discovered some of the precautions I’ve taken to guard my castle, you see I had a break-in last month and since then I’ve strengthened the boundary spells ten times over to keep the likes of you and your friends over there out and her in” he said pointing to Belle.  “And on the off chance that someone with no magic such as yourself ever made their way up here well as you’ve just discovered, the spells will let you in but they won’t let you back out again. And don't tell me that you thought they were going to help you" he said jerking his head in the direction of the three frozen women "the only thing they would have done is killed you and taken the gauntlet for themselves."

“Did you honestly think that I wouldn’t know what you were up to?” the imp snapped at the King, “that I wouldn’t know that you had no intentions of honoring our deal?  As it so happens the gauntlet is not the only artifact you had that I wanted, there is something else in your possession as well and you’ve brought it with you and walked right into my trap.”

Arthur had a look of fear and horror on his face as he suddenly gripped the scabbard at his side tightly.  “Yes that’s right dearie”, Rumplestiltskin told him, “I want that sword, did you really think that I wouldn’t be aware of its existence or that I would conveniently ignore or forget it?”

“You cannot have Excalibur, it’s mine, my birth right, if you want it you’ll have to kill me” Arthur shouted at the imp.  Rumplestiltskin advanced on Arthur, slowly getting closer and closer “Actually dearie I think you’ll find that Excalibur belongs to me more than it ever did to you and as far as killing you goes, that’s not a problem for me” he plunged his hand into Arthur’s chest and pulled out his heart “because no one breaks deals with me and having you out of the way will be one less thorn in my side and my, my," he said tutting "looks like I’m not the only one who’ll see it that way, look at all those dark stains on your heart, no wonder Merlin abandoned you when he did, goodbye dearie” he said as he snapped his fist closed and crushed the King’s heart.

He glanced at Belle who still lay where she fell, as he took the sheath containing Excalibur from Arthur’s body, he sent Belle to the chaise in the great hall with a click of his fingers, he knew her injuries were only mild but it was still enough to send his temper soaring as he stalked through the boundary to where he’d frozen the three witches. 

“As for you three” he snapped unfreezing them with a wave of his hand “you served your only useful purpose when you procured a certain item for me many years ago” Maleficent was suddenly suspended in mid-air, “I no longer have any use for you and furthermore you were going to try and demand a ransom from me, the dark one, the gauntlet in exchange for my maid and that dearie is a death wish” he snapped Maleficent’s neck “now” he spoke to Cruella and Ursula “you two aren't even worth the effort so run along, I have work to do.”  He watched as Cruella and Ursula hastily fled, talk about getting six birds with one stone.  Arthur and Maleficent were dead and without Maleficent to back them up Cruella and Ursula posed no threat and he now had possession of both the gauntlet and Excalibur, what a successful evening's work.

Rumplestiltskin appeared in his vault, deep beneath the grounds of his castle where he kept various magical items some of which were so dark and unpredictable that even he wouldn’t meddle with them.  As such Belle had been warned that the vault was strictly forbidden and she was absolutely not to even think about setting so much as a toe near it and of course he'd put boundary spells around it to prevent anyone from approaching it.  So if Belle did happen to go in it's direction she would suddenly find herself turned around and walking back the way she had come.  He created a room similar to the one which held the dagger and set the other half of Excalibur on a table and put all manner of spells and charms around it and then when he left it he permanently sealed the room shut, Excalibur would never see the light of day again if he had his way.

Then he returned to the castle.  He entered the great hall to find that Belle was just waking up and he approached her to untie the rope from her hands and check her for injuries.  There was a slight cut to her forehead which he passed his hand over and healed. 

“What happened?” she asked him “did they get the gauntlet?”

“No” he replied quietly “they got what was coming to them and I got a new toy for my trouble”

“You killed them” it wasn’t so much a question as a statement, she knew what he’d done because she’d been in his presence when he’d done it before to Nottingham.  For some reason he found himself unable to lie to her and he admitted “Yes I did, Arthur and Maleficent that is, the other two weren't worth it.”  He stood and leaned back against the dining table.

“If I hadn’t stopped them, they would have taken you hostage dearie and used you to bargain for the gauntlet, perhaps hurt you or worse, a ransom disguised as a deal and a fool’s errand because I would have rescued you and then gone after them again and taken the gauntlet back.”

“The man Arthur, was a king, I made a deal with him several days ago which he had no intention of honoring and he had something else besides the gauntlet in his possession which I wanted so having already made a deal for the gauntlet I used it as bait and I allowed Arthur to think he could come here and take it back so that he would bring the other object right to my doorstep.”

“You would have come for me?” she questioned him as she stood to face him and he gently grasped her shoulders “Yes” he answered quietly, his head lowered “no matter where they would have brought you I would have come for you”. 

“Why do you care for me?” she asked him and he let go of her shoulders and said gruffly “I don’t, but if anyone is going to crush your heart it’s going to be me”

“I think I need to rest for a while now but I appreciate you being honest with me so thank you for that and for protecting me” she told him and then she paused at the doorway and said “Goodnight Rumple”.  Her use of a shortened form of his name had him snapping his head up to face her and he had the look of a man yearning for something Belle thought but he seemed to settle for a simple “Goodnight Belle, sleep well” before she left the room.  He followed her path to the doorway and silently watched her ascend the stairs to her room leaning against the door frame with his arms folded all the while thinking _I may be a beast dearie but I will never allow anyone to harm a single hair on your head_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so there is now a death toll of three in this fic so far, Nottingham, Arthur and Maleficent. As Rumple said they served their purpose and they don’t have any role in this story going forward. And also Hades has been taken care of as well for the foreseeable. 
> 
> So in the show Rumple was well aware of Excalibur’s existence as he talks about it briefly to Snow and Charming in earlier seasons as well as Guinevere and Lancelot in the vault in Season 5 and there is no way that he would not have known that it was the other half of the dagger. He was connected to both halves of the sword as the dark one so he should have sensed the other half and had it locked away somewhere as well. Logic fail from the OUAT writers as far as I'm concerned because Rumple is very crafty and always ten steps ahead of everyone else. Also he would have been smart enough to change the code for opening his vault at least several times so no one could work it out and he certainly wouldn't have been so careless as to have left any clues or directions to it lying around either.
> 
> Midas and Arthur- there are many myths and legends about Midas, the story featuring the satyr is only one of them. Likewise there are many stories about King Arthur as well and his relationship with Morgan and Mordred differ in some of them.
> 
> Arthur and Maleficent are minor characters in this story and I consider them to be minor characters in the show which is why I've listed their deaths as minor character deaths, just in case anyone is wondering. But if I'm wrong about that please let me know so I can change it.
> 
> Just in case anyone is wondering the three stooges comment from Rumple is not a reference to the comedy act as being in Mist Haven Rumple wouldn't know about that. It is merely Rumple's way of showing disdain for Maleficent, Cruella and Ursula by referring to their essentially working as his subordinates the last time they were altogether when he used them to do his dirty work and then left them to the chernabog.


	7. The Helmet and the Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belle has an opportunity to be free but she doesn't take it because she realizes she actually cares about her grumpy master. Rumple becomes more withdrawn and quiet so Belle tries to draw him out again and encourages him to tell her a story about two items from his collection.

Rumplestiltskin decided one day mainly out of curiosity to let Belle go to the village at the foot of the mountains for straw and supplies for the kitchen.  He could easily have summoned those items to him via magic but he wanted to put Belle to the test to see if she would keep her word and return to him.  Naturally enough he took precautions by enchanting the clasp of the cloak he had given her so that he would know where she was and hence if she tried to run.

That incident resulted not in Belle trying to escape as he had thought it would but in her bringing home a stray much to Rumple’s extreme displeasure. Not just any stray either as it turned out, oh no, this stray was an old friend of hers who just so happened to be in possession of Pandora’s Box and had been sent by Belle’s father to enslave Rumple and bring Belle home.

His name was Samuel and he had tricked Belle into letting him into the castle by feigning an injury.  Honestly the girl was far too naïve sometimes for her own good, Rumple decided he was going to have to discuss this with her at some point.

Rumple had left the castle on an errand when Belle had discovered what her friend was really up to and tried to get him out of the castle before her master returned.  However Samuel didn’t get very far, in fact he had barely made it out of the back door when Rumplestiltskin had appeared.  The wizard had promptly taken possession of Pandora’s box from Samuel and deposited him in a swamp or at least that’s what he told Belle at any rate.

Belle didn’t question him any further about it and she never dared bring up the subject of his dagger which she had learned about through Samuel.  Rumple obviously had it hidden away somewhere and as far as Belle was concerned it could stay hidden.  No one should ever have that kind of control over another being not even over someone like Rumple.   She couldn't place the exact moment when she had begun to see a vulnerable side to her master and become protective of him but somehow it had happened and she knew that she cared about him.

The following few weeks after were mercifully quiet in the Dark Castle, in fact almost too quiet.  Belle was of the opinion that Rumplestiltskin was avoiding her since their little chat after he had killed Arthur in which he had denied caring about her in spite of having protected her from his enemies on more than one occasion thus far.  So Belle thinking there was a bit more to it than that decided that she would make an effort to engage him in conversation, to try and draw him out of his shell slowly one step at a time, after all he couldn’t avoid her forever.

Rumplestiltskin didn’t know when he had begun to find Belle’s presence to be soothing or how, he just knew that it had happened and that it had made him long to talk to her and to be in her company more often but at the same time he was fearful of being rejected by her.

He was struck by the incident with Belle's friend Samuel because she could have been long home and free of him by now but instead she had tried to protect him and her friend granted but she had the chance to control him or kill him in her lap and she had refused to take it.  He felt like a lost lamb, wanting to approach her but not knowing how to go about it whilst being terrified at the same time lest she rebuff him.

After all why would she want to spend time with the beast who’d imprisoned her forever, she was so beautiful and he was a monster.  He felt depressed by the thought and became withdrawn over it because even though he'd denied it to her face he did care about her.

Belle solved this conundrum for him by approaching him.  She decided to start small, waiting in the great hall for him and setting out his evening cup of tea rather than just leaving the tray on the table and going elsewhere in the huge castle to finish her chores for the day as she would have done before.

It hadn’t escaped her notice that he had some time ago taken to drinking solely from the cup she had chipped but for now she made no comment to him about it.  “Rumple, what are these?” she asked him once he was settled and sipping his tea, she indicated a strange looking helmet and an odd crystal ball in his cabinet which she was now dusting around.

Rumple seemed so skittish that asking about some of the magical objects he had in his collection seemed about the safest topic to begin with Belle had decided.

It had been so long since Rumple had someone to share things with that he’d almost forgotten how.  He carefully set his cup of tea down and rose to join her at the cabinet, wanting to make the most of this opportunity to speak with her he clicked his fingers and a heavy throw appeared on the floor by the fireside.

He took both the helmet and the odd crystal ball from the cabinet and sat down on the throw with his back against the bottom of his chair and patted the spot beside him beckoning Belle to join him.  “Come along dearie, sit with me and I’ll tell you a story.”  Eager to hear whatever tale he was about to spin she joined him and they sat side by side staring at the flickering flames.

“The helmet” he began “belonged to a young prince named Perseus, it was a gift to the prince from the gods and has the power to render its wearer invisible.”

He lifted the strange looking crystal ball “this is known as the all-seeing eye.  It once belonged to three old hags who were known as the Stygian witches.  They were blind and shared the eye between them and they also shared an appetite for human flesh, very, very nasty altogether.”

“How did you get it?” she asked him.

“The same way I came by the helmet dearie, from Perseus.  You see he sought the Stygian witches out for advice on how to save his true love Princess Andromeda from being sacrificed to a kraken and they told him that his only chance was by using the head of a gorgon named Medusa to turn the kraken to stone.  Perseus stole the all-seeing eye from them and brought it to me in exchange for a reflective shield, the helmet he had lost in a swamp and I later retrieved it.”

“A reflective shield I think your joking now Rumple and how would the head of a gorgon turn a kraken to stone?”

“Oh no dearie I’m most serious, the gorgon was once a mortal woman but she was cursed to appear so hideous that anyone or anything who looked upon her would immediately be turned to stone.  Which is where a reflective shield came in rather handy and helped Perseus defeat the gorgon without looking her directly in the face and turning to stone himself.  I got a few vials of gorgon blood out of the deal as well."

"So what did you want with the eye then and what could you possibly do with gorgon blood?"

"That’s my business dearie but the eye is all powerful, it has the ability to do more than simply grant vision to those who cannot see, it also has powerful protective properties. Because Perseus’s cloak had touched the eye it was protected against the toxic blood from the head of the gorgon."

Rumple looked at Belle to find her eyes riveted on him, she had been fascinated by his story and was hanging on his every word.

“Are you quite alright dearie?” he asked unaccustomed to such attention."

“I’m fine, please tell me more, did Perseus save his princess?” Belle asked him.

"He did indeed, he flew to her rescue on Pegasus the winged horse, he destroyed the kraken and saved Andromeda and they married."

“That’s an amazing story” Belle said and then she yawned, the heat from the fire was relaxing her and making her sleepy.

“Tell me Belle” he said “do you not wish for someone to rescue you, to free you as Perseus freed Andromeda?”

“I don't need to be freed, you’re not a kraken are you?” she said teasing him sleepily “No but I’m a monster all the same” he replied.

“No you’re not, you just can’t see it yet” she murmured.

“You are tired” he observed, “you should rest”.

“No” she protested “I want to hear more” but she slowly sank onto the throw until she was resting her head on it and her eyes drifted shut.

“Not now dearie, rest and I’ll tell you another story tomorrow” he told her as he lay beside her in front of the fire and for the first time in he didn’t know how long he felt a sense of peace and fell asleep next to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is just a fluffy chapter in which they have a bit of quiet time together and slowly begin to bond and what better way for them to bond than over stories something she loves and he has plenty of.
> 
> The story of the helmet and the eye that Rumple tells Belle is based on Clash of the Titans 1981.
> 
> A picture of Rumple holding "the eye" http://oncepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2012/11/Rumplestiltskin-holding-crystal-ball-The-Doctor-2x05.jpg
> 
> I was trying to find a picture of the helmet but that was trickier. It appears in "Heroes and Villains" in Rumple's cabinet on the top shelf after Belle is seen opening the doors and the camera then pans down the shelves.


End file.
